Akufo-Addo campaign team reacts to Mahama's performance story

Accra, July 11, GNA - The Akufo-Addo Campaign Team says the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Presidential Candidate never stated that Mr John Mahama, Member of Parliament (MP) for Bole-Bamboi did nothing for the area as an MP.

According to a rejoinder sent to GNA, the Campaign Team said: "We wish to state that the NPP Presidential Candidate never stated that John Mahama, MP, did nothing for the area as an MP.

"What Nana Akufo-Addo said was that in the period that John Mahama, Member of Parliament for Bole-Bamboi, and his Party were in power, the Bole-Bamboi road was not done.

"He added that in our time in office, we have done the road. And this is a statement of fact. It is important to state that the Bole-Bamboi road that links the Southern Sector of Ghana to the Northern Parts had been a major concern for the people of the Three Regions for the several years that John Mahama's NDC was in power," the Campaign Team stated.

The Ghana News Agency, however, stands by the original story because the rhetorical question - 'what has he done for you'? - Can be interpreted in various ways.

The GNA had reported: "Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Flag Bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has pleaded with the people of the North to stop the "one-way-voting" and vote to retain the NPP for continuity.

"He said since 1992, people in the North had refused to vote for the NPP saying: "Times have changed and you need to move with it and change your entrenched positions and vote for me in the December elections to bring development to your doorstep no matter where you are coming from."

"Nana Akufo-Addo made the appeal when he made whistle stops at some communities at the entry points and along the route of Bamboi in the Northern Region to the Upper West Region where he would begin a four-day official tour of his 22-day tour of the three Northern Regions.

"The communities visited were; Bamboi, Mandari, Bole, Sawla, Tuna and Kalba where he met with opinion leaders and party members and explained his vision for the nation when voted to govern the country in 2009.

"Addressing a mini rally at Mandari and Bole in the Bole-Bamboi constituency, Nana Akuffo-Addo claimed that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) would never come back to power again and stressed the need for all Ghanaians including those in the North to rally behind the NPP for a well deserved victory in December.

"He said Mr John Dramani Mahama, running mate to Professor John Atta Mills, NDC flagbearer, who hailed from Bole, did nothing for the area as an MP and asked the constituents to reject him and the NDC since he (Dramani) and the NDC never had the interest of the area at heart. "He said the tarring of the Bole-Bamboi trunk road, which was now 90 per cent complete, was a testimony of NPP's commitment to developing the constituency and integrating it to the rest of the country. "Nana Akufo-Addo said the NPP would make good use of the various dams and dugouts in the Northern sector and introduce new methods of farming and subsidize farm inputs to farmers to transform the regions. "Alhaji Abubakari Saddique Boniface, Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, said that the NPP had already won the December elections and advised people of the area to be part of the victory by voting massively to retain the government.

"Besides' Alhaji Boniface, Nana Akufo-Addo is being accompanied by Mr Alan Kyeremanteng, member of the campaign team of Nana Akuffo Addo, Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris, Northern Regional Minister, Mr Osafo Marfo, Mr Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, all former ministers of state, Ms Gloria Akuffo and Alhaji Moctar Bamba.